Challenges of implementing restorative justice for intimate partner violence: An Islamic perspective

ABSTRACT

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is currently recognized as a critical public health concern and a human rights issue. Not surprisingly, Muslims – a religiously and socio-culturally diverse faith-based populace – are not an exception. To address this complex area of criminal justice and social policy, some scholars advocate implementing restorative justice (RJ) approaches. While RJ approaches have been traditionally used in Islamic cultures for conflict resolutions, to date, few studies have investigated how RJ operates in dealing with IPV in Muslim countries and communities. This article explores how RJ approaches towards IPV operate in some Muslim countries/communities, and offers insights into developing culturally and religiously appropriate ways of implementing RJ in IPV situations among Muslims. Given the prevalence of IPV among Muslims, the question is particularly important and timely. Taking exclusively limited examples of RJ approaches that have been used to mediate IPV cases in Muslim countries and communities, this paper found one significant challenge in the RJ approaches among Muslims: community acceptance of IPV. To reduce IPV in Muslim society, it is necessary to develop treatment models and techniques that meet cultural and religious needs. This paper found that since RJ is not alien to Islamic teachings, RJ approaches can be implemented effectively in dealing with IPV among Muslims by ensuring justice and equity of the abused woman. The findings of this paper will assist policymakers, practitioners, and service providers in providing religiously and culturally appropriate care when addressing IPV issues among Muslims.     

生态美学悖论：现代主义的失败，前现代的复活以及后现代的展望

如今我们知道出现了环境伦理学的一些事,这种伦理学为人们在日常生活行为中保护自然资源和生态系统并制止破坏生态的行为所需要的道德规范进行论证。生态伦理学的那些原则的根据,是希望在富裕而文明的城市生活和为保住地球而考虑着有所节制这两者之间达成和谐关系,即是说,在消费和节制欲望之间达成和谐关系。因此,我们眼见到作为西方化、工业化和城市化的现代主义的失败。那就是前现代的那种崇拜自然的怀旧情绪出现的原因。与此相当,现代美学,作为关于感性的哲学,也破产了。现在,时候到了,我们应该设想生态美学是可能的。为什么现在需要生态美学呢?其实,我们面临着现代美学本身的危机。我们的现代性过渡到了后现代时代,在这过渡的当口,产生了一些人不曾经历过的情况:直接和真东西接触难了,真东西让关于不可眼见的对象的那些铺天盖地的信息给遮蔽了;媒体和政治势力的黑手控制着人们的经验;城市化和无所不在的矫揉造作,把对于自然的感觉弄得麻木不仁;数字符号弄出来的影像和言辞,把艺术呈现搞得毫无力度。在后现代性的展望中,为了帮助美学恢复其意义这一目的,我们应该构筑生态美学。这种美学应该恰当地处理人对自然的关系、经验中的敏感性的意义,以及城市性的消费生活等问题。我们应该恢复关于我们的原初经验的思考,这种经验将使我们对美学的重要性进行重新评价。     

Dealing with the 'Void': traumatic brain injury as a story

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is considered to drastically affect the individual's sense of self. To discover how people with TBI understand themselves, in-depth interviews with four individuals with TBI were conducted. Their narratives suggest that they feel they are carrying a 'void' in their understandings of their past and present. Individuals tend to fill the 'void' in their long-term memory with stories about the accident and recovery. The concept of 'void' is also useful in understanding how TBI survivors view the causal relationship between the accident, the brain injury and their present difficulties. This relationship can be another 'void' that threatens their sense of agency. The findings suggest that the experience of TBI appears as meanings in their self-narratives rather than as objective truth. Rehabilitation professionals should consider how their client interprets his or her TBI and self in everyday life when they work with this population.     

Yearly variation in recruitment and its effect on population dynamics inYoldia notabilis (Mollusca: Bivalvia), analyzed using projection matrix model

Summary Long-term variation in recruitment was estimated by constructing projection matrices for a marine bivalve,Yoldia notabilis, at two stations in Otsuchi Bay, northeastern Japan, and the effects of its variation on population dynamics were examined using a simple matrix model. The matrix model was developed from the Leslie matrix, in which the population growth rate λ was expressed as a function of recruitment rater ₀. The equilibrium recruitment rater _s, or the recruitment rate required to maintain population at constant size (λ=1), was expressed by the reciprocal of the reproductive value of a newly recruited individual. The estimates ofr _s for the field population were lower at the shallower station than at the deeper station, reflecting higher survivorship and fecundity. Past recruitment rate estimated both by the field samplings for 3 years and by the back-calculation from the current age structure for over 10 years showed large yearly variation, ranging between 0 and 58.6×10⁻⁴. The estimates were larger thanr _s, and hence, large enough to increase population size (λ>1) only in approximately one-third of the estimated years. This suggests that the population has been maintained by occasional successful recruitment occurring once every few years.     

Dynamics of age- and size-structured populations in fluctuating environments: Applications of stochastic matrix models to natural populations

Recent developments of the theory of stochastic matrix modeling have made it possible to estimate general properties of age- and size-structured populations in fluctuating environments. However, applications of the theory to natural populations are still few. The empirical studies which have used stochastic matrix models are reviewed here to examine whether predictions made by the theory can be generally found in wild populations. The organisms studied include terrestrial grasses and herbs, a seaweed, a fish, a reptile, a deer and some marine invertebrates. In all the studies, the stochastic population growth rate (ln λ _s ) was no greater than the deterministic population growth rate determined using average vital rates, suggesting that the model based only on average vital rates may overestimate growth rates of populations in fluctuating environments. Factors affecting ln λ _s include the magnitude of variation in vital rates, probability distribution of random environments, fluctuation in different types of vital rates, covariances between vital rates, and autocorrelation between successive environments. However, comprehensive rules were hardly found through the comparisons of the empirical studies. Based on shortcomings of previous studies, I address some important subjects which should be examined in future studies.     

Crime news,fear of crime,and mistrust: an examination of protective factors against influences of local crime news

This study investigates interpersonal communication ties and a neighborhood context as moderators of the influences of local crime news on fear of crime and mistrust. Data from a web survey of residents in Chicago show that the relationship between attention to local crime news and fear of crime is weaker for respondents who more frequently communicate with neighbors both intimately and casually and who live in more walkable neighborhoods. Data also indicate that the relationship between local crime news and mistrust is weaker for those who more often communicate with neighbors intimately and live in more walkable neighborhoods. Findings are discussed in terms of protective factors against the negative influences of local crime news.     

The Nakamura numbers for computable simple games

The Nakamura number of a simple game plays a critical role in preference aggregation (or multi-criterion ranking): the number of alternatives that the players can always deal with rationally is less than this number. We comprehensively study the restrictions that various properties for a simple game impose on its Nakamura number. We find that a computable game has a finite Nakamura number greater than three only if it is proper, nonstrong, and nonweak, regardless of whether it is monotonic or whether it has a finite carrier. The lack of strongness often results in alternatives that cannot be strictly ranked. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. We would like to thank an anonymous referee for useful suggestions. The discussion in footnote 3 and Remark 4, among other things, would not have been possible without his/her suggestion.     

中日邦交正常化以后两国关系的历史分期

本文根据中日邦交正常化以后两国关系的历史轨迹,以政治关系为主导,以重大事件作为分期的起始点和终止点,将这段中日关系分为前蜜月时期、后蜜月期、双强并立与磨合时期、重新定位时期四个阶段,并提出了这四个阶段不同的关系特点。在把握政治关系主线的同时,以经济关系为辅助,以两国民众相互之间感情变化和对对方国家的看法、态度为参照,表现两国关系的主要客观历史进程,揭示两国关系的阶段性内涵,以及政治、经济和民间关系三者之间的关联性与相互作用。     

Family leave policies and women's retention after childbirth: Evidence from the United States, Britain, and Japan

This paper uses labour force survey data to examine the employment rates and employment decisions of women with young children in the United States, Britain and Japan. Our results confirm that young children have a very strong negative effect on women's employment; this effect is most pronounced in Britain. We then take advantage of panel data to investigate the effects of family leave coverage on women's job retention after childbirth. We find that family leave coverage increases the likelihood that a woman will return to her employer after childbirth in all three countries, with a particularly marked effect in Japan. This result suggests that the recent expansions in family leave coverage in the sample countries are likely to lead to increased employment of women after childbirth. Received: 10 July 1997/Accepted: 8 June 1998